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Berlin, 1937. The city radiates glamour and ambition. But danger lurks in every shadow…

Anna Hansen, a bride-to-be, is a pupil at one of Hitler's notorious Nazi Bride Schools, where young women are schooled on the art of being an SS officer's wife. Then, one night, she is brutally murdered and left in the gardens of the school. Her death will be hushed up and her life forgotten.

Clara Vine is an actress at Berlin's famous Ufa studios by day and an undercover British Intelligence agent by night. She knew Anna and is disturbed by news of her death. She cannot understand why someone would want to cover it up, but she soon discovers that Anna's murder is linked to a far more ominous secret.

With the newly abdicated Edward VIII and his wife Wallis set to arrive in Berlin, and the Mitford sisters dazzling on the social scene, Clara must work in the darkness to find the truth and send it back to London. It is a dangerous path she treads, and it will take everything she has to survive…

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Product description

Review

‘This is the fourth of the addictive ‘Clara Vine’ novels, set in Berlin on the eve of war. Clara is a half-German British agent with access to the inner circle of Nazi wives. Portraits of women such as Magda Goebbels and Eva Braun are ruthlessly truthful, but drawn with compassion. It is early 1939, and Clara is drawn into investigating the murder of a girl at the League of Faith and Beauty finishing school. Brilliant’ (Saga magazine on Faith and Beauty)

'The perfect fusion of history, suspense and high romance' (The Times on Black Roses)

'A thoughtful but fast-moving novel' (Reader's Digest on Black Roses)

'This well-researched story unfolds with utterly knuckle-whitening suspense, and it was my favourite escapist read of the year' (Saga Magazine on Black Roses)

About the Author

Jane Thynne was born in Venezuela and educated in London. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English and joined the BBC as a journalist. She has also worked at The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, as well as for numerous British magazines. She appears as a broadcaster on Radio 4. Jane is married to the writer Philip Kerr. They have three children and live in London. Find out more at www.janethynne.com connect with her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @janethynne

Top customer reviews

Thynne's research is clearly thorough but she can't resist over-using it: every cafe or bar a character enters is given paragraphs on its history, its clientele, the beers and pastries it was famous for and so on. The foreground, as a result, remains quite thin, most notably in the case of Clara, the greatest non-personality of the series: it feels like a cop-out to say she's an actress and always pretending as a way of masking the fact she's not fleshed out by the author.

The plot itself is unsubtle and written from our perspective with our hindsight: the Nazis are all monsters, not necessarily the dominant view of the time as is shown via the Mitfords and Wallis and Edward VIII.

Despite lots of niggles, though, I still found this an engrossing read: it could just be better than it manages to be - 3.5 stars.

This is the second novel featuring actress/spy Clara Vine, who first appeared in “Black Roses.” The first novel was set in 1933, but it is now 1937 and Clara, daughter of British politician and Nazi sympathiser, Sir Ronald Vine, whose mother was German and whose grandmother was Jewish, has now made a life for herself in Berlin. Clara’s Jewish ancestry is almost a great a secret as her work for British Intelligence and both must be guarded closely, for Berlin has changed for the worse since our heroine first arrived and Clara walks a delicate tightrope. She not only passes information about the Nazi elite to Archie Dyson, attaché at the British Embassy, but she also informs Joseph Goebbels of gossip which might be useful to him.

The book begins with the murder of Anna Hansen, who Clara knew previously as a dancer and an artist’s model, but who was about to marry an SS officer and was attending one of the government’s Reich Bride Schools. When Clara’s friend, journalist Mary Harker, returns from covering the Spanish Civil War, she is interested in the crime. At first, it seems the regime is covering it up as an embarrassment, but then the Gestapo become involved. What did Anna know, or do, that got her killed and why is Clara suddenly under suspicion?

This is an exciting and, I found, a much more enjoyable read than the first book – with Clara a much more rounded character. Again, the author has used so many real life people in this novel; not only the intensely creepy Goebbels and his wife, Magda, but all of the Nazi elite (there is a fascinating trip to Goering’s vast hunting lodge, Carinall), a brief cameo appearance by Charles Lindbergh, as well as visiting British dignitaries, the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, on a honeymoon to Nazi Germany, and two of the Mitford sisters – Unity (wonderfully eccentric and deranged) and the cool and capable Diana. There are also two more men in Clara’s life; Englishman Ralph Sommers and Oberst Arno Strauss, friend of her new co-star the WWI flying hero, Ernst Udet. It is clear that war is expected and that Germany are preparing for a totally different kind of conflict than any seen before. The bombing of civilians in Spain suggests that air attacks will be used and the British want to find out what Germany has planned.

I really think that Jane Thynne has the makings of a wonderful series here. With Black Roses I had a few reservations, but this, second book, is much more assured and interesting than the first – fast paced and well plotted, with good characters and fascinating historical cameo appearances. It is certainly a series I will follow and, hopefully, Clara will have many more adventures. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Clara Vine book (Black Roses), I believe I bought it as an Amazon daily kindle deal and enjoyed it so much I was scouring the Amazon pages hoping to find a sequel within moments of reaching the closing pages and here it is.

The Winter Garden is a fantastic book with great pace and a superb flow of almost individual story lines that combine and build into a bigger picture just like tributaries such as the rivers Spree and the Havel ultimately merging into the Elbe.

This fantastic author takes us on a journey through 1937 Germany using wonderfully powerful characters, eloquently described locations and a deft mix of history.

Although this is the second book in the series this reader read it as a stand-alone but will definitely be going back to read the first one.

The beginning was rather a surprise and the exactly right setting for this novel. The idea of having the female lead (Clara Vine) as an undercover spy who is for all intense and purposes a German actress was inspired and shows some of the glamour of the time. Throughout the course of the novel the author mixes real life people, or rather the Nazi elite, with the female lead and her world. In her role as cinema star she is expected to attend some parties held by these elite and even encounters the two Mitford sisters and the honeymooning Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson. These parties allow Clara to glean information for the British by listening in on the elite’s conversations.

The supposed main focus of the book took ages to come to the fore. And Clara did very little of the investigating apart from being given the victims last possession. It seemed to this reader that the author was more concerned with the historical aspects than the investigating aspects. Even when we are suddenly introduced to Mary there is still little investigation done.

Who exactly is Mary and what is her relation to Clara? She just suddenly appears. It is highly possible that this character was introduced in the previous book as there was very little told about her in this particular novel. Another person show suddenly appears without any formal introduction was Clara’s godson/son who she constantly tells us she loves. I found that he had few redeeming qualities and was more a puppet showing the effects of the Hitler Youth movement more than anything else.

The author could write up a storm making the reader feel the desolation and despair of the people living in Berlin at the beginning of Hitler’s rule just before the outbreak of World War II. They are trying to get on with their lives under the ever present scrutiny of the Nazis. The descriptions are so real you feel as though you are there too. Yet there were also occurrences where the writing was clunky with the same thoughts being expressed five times within five pages. But this might be a proofing issue.

I loved the premise of this heroine but did we really need to have the romantic elements, especially when the British agent felt as though he was put in the pages at the last possible moment. I personally fell for the German suitor who had more depth to him. Suppose though the British agent was added so that the author had something to tie this book to the next one in the series. But surely the strength of the female lead should be enough to do that.

This reader thought that the author spent too much time telling the reader what they should think and feel rather than allowing the reader to work things out for themselves. Perhaps this reader’s experience of this book would have been enhanced having started with the first book where the background information obviously is not only for this character but also for some of the lesser characters. That said, if you like factually based historical mystery novels this book may well be right up your alley.